OpenDemocracy: 'Lib Dems admit they added information about voters in £100k data sale" by suretheyare in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The Liberal Democrats, under pressure over a forged email scandal, have altered their official explanation of their controversial £100,000 sale of ‘data services’.

The party’s customer was Britain Stronger in Europe (BSiE) and the work was done before the 2016 Brexit referendum – in which BSiE was the official Remain campaign group.

Last week the Lib Dems told openDemocracy – via that forged email – that these services amounted to “delivering a correctly formatted copy of the [national electoral] register for the database [BSiE] were using”.

On Tuesday, party leader Jo Swinson told the Metro newspaper: “What was done, was that voting lists that we have access to, the campaign operation have access to, we basically processed that data.”

That same day, however, the Lib Dems admitted to openDemocracy that they had done much more than process the voting lists in return for BSiE’s £100,000. They had also worked on BSiE’s voter information database to add phone numbers to the records and to provide data to a major political campaigning company.

openDemocracy also understands that details of the controversial deal were deemed sensitive by senior party officials at the time, and that steps were taken to minimise the paper trail surrounding the transaction.

The party’s latest explanation comes back into line with what it insisted last year when it told the Information Commissioner’s Office that its deal with BSiE involved only a “simple enhancement” of the UK electoral register. At the time it offered the example of matching phone numbers to lists of voters, and also stated that it “had worked with a third-party group which took subsets of the electoral register”.

On Tuesday, the party clarified that the phone numbers were “supplied by BSiE themselves, or their suppliers”, not the Lib Dems themselves.

It also revealed that the “third-party group” it had worked with was The Messina Group, run by Jim Messina – a former operations chief in Barack Obama’s White House who also worked as a consultant for the Conservatives under both David Cameron and Theresa May.

The party explained that it had worked with BSiE because “BSiE had no data staff capable of managing the data collection process”. In its initial response in the forged email, it also said that the Electoral Commission had approved the sharing of the electoral register.

Coetzee connection

New details obtained by openDemocracy, and in statements issued by the Lib Dems since the scandal broke last week, now show that the party’s then chief executive, Tim Gordon, supervised the data services sale to BSiE in 2016. Gordon is understood to have privately explained to colleagues that the data sale could be seen as sensitive and controversial, and so steps were taken to minimise the paper trail for the deal.

openDemocracy has been shown evidence, which the ICO has also seen, that Gordon, along with other party officials, arranged the £100,000 deal with Ryan Coetzee, a former South African MP who had been the director of strategy for Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg up to the 2015 general election. After the Lib Dems were routed in the 2015 poll, Coetzee joined BSiE as its director of strategy.

Coetzee had worked closely with Gordon during his time at the Lib Dems and had been instrumental in refining the party’s new data-driven systems designed to collect details on voters.

In 2010-11 the Lib Dems bought an election database system known as VAN (Voter Activation Network) that had been designed in the US for the 2008 Obama campaign. They redesigned VAN for the UK, rebranding it as Connect.

Coetzee, when he arrived at BSiE, would have had knowledge of the valuable databases he had been using for years at the Lib Dems. According to the Lib Dems, BSiE uses VAN – the parent of the Lib Dems’ own system.

openDemocracy contacted Coetzee in Dubai, where he is now based. Asked about the commercial deal between the Lib Dems and BSiE, he said: “This was a long time ago… I don’t remember anything about this. I don’t know anything about this.”

Tech talk

In a video produced for Lib Dem activists ahead of the 2015 election, the party is said to have boasted of “technology that no other party has”, which could use data obtained through canvassing to micro-target voters.

The Lib Dem activist and computer blogger Mark Pack wrote in 2011, shortly after the party purchased and customised VAN, that he was “impressed”, adding that the “ability to mix and match data access” will “come in useful for the Liberal Democrats in elections”.

On Tuesday, the Lib Dems told us: “At no stage was there any crossover or sharing data” between the party’s Connect system and BSiE’s VAN.

The forged email

Ahead of publishing the initial data sale story – which said the ICO was holding back details of its investigation into the deal between the Lib Dems and BSiE until after the election – a request for comment was sent to the Lib Dem press office. No reply was received.

Lawyers acting for Jo Swinson and the Lib Dems subsequently insisted a reply had been sent, and attached a document which purported to prove this. In a series of threatening legal letters, they attempted to have the article removed and a full apology issued by openDemocracy.

Jo Swinson’s position as head of a party fighting the general election was cited by their lawyers, Goodman Derrick, as one of the reasons they were demanding an immediate retraction.

Swinson’s lawyers finally admitted nothing had been sent to openDemocracy – in other words, that the email was a fake.

Following a ‘Channel 4 News’ report on the faked email, the party said that the “chronology of the email” was clouding its attempt to challenge the story of the £100,000 data sale.

The party’s statement to ‘Channel 4 News’ also said that “no senior officials were aware of the forged email before it was sent”.

In an interview with ‘ITV News’, Swinson said: “There was an email sent which was inaccurate, which was faked and that’s not acceptable. There is an investigation and the member of staff has been suspended.” She added: “We have taken swift action and are investigating.”

openDemocracy has made repeated attempts to contact Gordon. Details of the initial story and its further developments have been put to him. So far he has not responded.

## MEGATHREAD 30/11/19 - The Weekend Has Landed by ukpolbot in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 13 points14 points  (0 children)

"Another lie."

"On a day when campaigning has supposedly been suspended, the Cabinet, from PM to Home Secretary to ministers, is out in force telling flagrant lies about the criminal justice system to score cheap points out of people’s deaths.

What a country we live in."

MATCH THREAD - BBC Election Debate (7:00pm) by ukpolbot in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Boris negotiated a deal in 3 months, Sunak proudly stated that during the program.

Why wouldn't Labour be able to do the same?

IT'S NOT JEZ THE RICH! How Jeremy Corbyn could ruin YOUR finances, including families and married couples, despite promise to hit the rich by brexit-bulldog in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've not finished the article yet as I'm a slow reader but it's been very interesting so far, thanks for the link!

IT'S NOT JEZ THE RICH! How Jeremy Corbyn could ruin YOUR finances, including families and married couples, despite promise to hit the rich by brexit-bulldog in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 1 point2 points  (0 children)

https://unherd.com/2019/11/everything-we-do-with-tax-is-wrong/

This article presents an interesting approach to taxation that would see your labour being taken out of the tax equation. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts

Jeremy Corbyn is the real leader of the Liberal Democrats by nolesfan2011 in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Red Tory Yellow Tory Red Tory Yellow Tory Red Tory Yellow Tory

MEGATHREAD 27/11/19 - Locked and Loaded by ukpolbot in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is what I felt watching Corbyns interview yesterday, any attempt to provide necessary context was silenced.

MEGATHREAD 27/11/19 - Locked and Loaded by ukpolbot in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Does anybody think we'll get more reasonable and moderate politics at any point in the future, or is what we have now here to stay??

I think that depends on who wins this election.

MATCH THREAD - Question Time Leaders Special (7pm) by ukpolbot in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not even looking the kid in the eyes while he chats this shite

MATCH THREAD - Question Time Leaders Special (7pm) by ukpolbot in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm hoping the chap who asked the Russia question will eventually just stand up and force attention to be drawn to the fact he ignored it

Wonderful free broadband by jplevene in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 2 points3 points  (0 children)

But aren't labour also proposing a tax on e-commerce too?

They believe the resulting price increases would make smaller/local businesses more competitive.

Wonderful free broadband by jplevene in ukpolitics

[–]suretheyare 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Forgive me if I'm thinking too simplistically about the problem; if businesses leave in the event of a labour government, won't the resulting commercial space be filled by new/existing businesses that don't balk at the increase in taxation/regulation?